Key operated cylinder locks have long been used for locking doors, file cabinet drawers and the like. Prevalent among such is their use in locking the doors of panel trucks and vans. These vehicles ordinarily have both a sliding side door as well as a hinged rear door. Both doors are latched and unlatched by rotatable handles. For security these handles are equipped with key operated lock cylinders. In some cases a stationary lock cylinder is used which means that the cylinder is not depressible but remains fixed along its axis in both its locked and unlocked positions. To lock or unlock a stationary cylinder lock a conventional metallic key is simply inserted into it and rotated. Nevertheless both locking and unlocking of the doors require use of a key. This is a desirable feature in that the door cannot be closed and locked accidently. On the other hand a push-to-lock type cylinder, which does having limited axial movement, can be more readily locked since it does not require a key. One merely pushes it in to lock. Thus some customers, such as van fleet purchasers, may prefer one or the other for both the side and rear door while others may prefer one type for one door and another type cylinder lock for the other door. The van body manufacturer thus needs the flexibility of being able to install the door latch and handle during body manufacture with the ability to install the desired key coded cylinder lock later in the field.
To meet this goal Kason Industries, Inc. has recently produced two door handles with factory keyed cylinder locks of both the stationary and the push type. However, it would be more effective if a single handle and cylinder assembly that could be readily converted to either stationary or push operation in the field were to be devised with the ability to field select key codes (cylinder number). It is to this end that the present invention is primarily directed.